Cheltenham tips: Dave Nevison's best bets for Gold Cup day

Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup day is another cracker and I have quite a good ante-post book on the race, having backed A Plus Tard at a slightly better price than he is now and both Galvin and Al Boum Photo at much bigger. I will be gutted if I don’t have the winner from those three and a win will cap a decent week on the punting front.

However, trying to name which of the trio I would come down on for a selection is beyond me and I constantly spin from one to the other. A Plus Tard will give racing the biggest headlines, so maybe I will cheer that one home to make it another brilliant meeting for Henry de Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore as they look to complete arguably the biggest double of the week.

1.30 Cheltenham: Vauban

I have little doubt that Vauban should have beaten Pied Piper when they both met on their jumps debuts at Punchestown. He was less professional than his rival, made crucial mistakes and had to be switched to finally make his challenge but still almost got up to win. If he had been at the same level of fitness as Pied Piper on that day I believe he would have justified 4-9 odds comfortably.

Both horses have run once subsequently and, while Pied Piper was unbelievably impressive at Cheltenham, I believe the substance of Vauban’s win in the Grade One Racing TV Spring Juvenile Hurdle is much stronger and he certainly showed he had benefitted from his first jumping experience when beating Gordon Elliott’s other juvenile star Fil Dor.

A Listed winner on the Flat in France, going conditions will be fine and Vauban looks an obvious choice.

2.10 Cheltenham: Suprise Package

Either all of the runners in the Imperial Cup were badly out of form, which seems unlikely, or Suprise Package who took the field apart is still seriously well-handicapped - even with a penalty. I am more than happy to take the latter view as he just won so easily and is obviously in excellent form at present.

It is not as if the Imperial Cup and County Hurdle double has not been done before and even though there isn’t a bonus this year it is definitely on with conditions set to be similar to Sandown last weekend and a good pace to aim at pretty certain.

Apart from at Leopardstown in February - where even then there were valid excuses - Suprise Package has been very consistent and gradually improving this season and it is difficult not to see him running well again.

5.30 Cheltenham: Langer Dan and Adamantly Chosen

I may be nuts, but despite the huge field as always here I feel this race boils down to just two real contenders.

I was on Langer Dan for the Imperial Cup/Martin Pipe double last term and after he won at Sandown I watched him going extremely well throughout in last year's race, only to realise that he was never going to beat a Willie Mullins rival which was galling - and especially so since that horse was Galopin Des Champs, who won Grade One honours at Punchestown on his following start.

Langer Dan has only run once since then and finished last in a small race at Taunton. It seems pretty clear that that was a prep for this race and the handicapper has been generous, perhaps overly so, by dropping him 3lbs and Langer Dan is now only 2lbs higher than last term. He could be seriously well-in and has the same jockey on board.

The only horse that I fancy can beat him is Adamantly Chosen, another Willie Mullins runner and a lightly-raced novice but a remarkable one.

He won the Bumper at Punchestown on his racecourse debut last spring which is a huge effort in a high-class 22-runner field. There were any number of previous and subsequent winners in that race and expectations have been very high for a hurdles campaign, but he got beat on his debut and was second again at long odds-on after that.

However, he came good last time in no uncertain style and won from a massive field by 27 lengths. He is in the 'could be anything' category, but my view is that he is highly likely to be something special and even an opening mark of 142 could be very lenient. His experience in very big fields will certainly help him here.